After over a month of silence as corporate liberalism suffered a massive blow as ordinary Americans rose up against Anheuser-Busch InBev and dumped Bud Light (and the company’s sales) for worshiping at the alter of transgenderism and Dylan Mulvaney, NBC’s Today cracked one open Friday with the first story from a broadcast network morning or evening news show about the fallout.
Despite the controversy having started back on April 1 with Mulvaney’s infamous video announcing Bud Light had sent a can with their face on it to commemorate “my day 365 of womanhood,” NBC’s Today acted like this had happened only recently.
“[B]rewing controversy. This morning, the makers of Bud Light speaking out following that backlash after partnering with a transgender influencer. Straight ahead, what the company is now saying about it and the impact to their bottom line,” said co-host Savannah Guthrie in a tease.
Co-host Craig Melvin and correspondent Emilie Ikeda had the two-minute-and-40-second story that.....could have been worse?
Melvin began: “The head of Anheuser-Busch is vowing to move past the controversy that essentially started with a beer can. The company faced a backlash over a commemorative Bud Light can that featured a transgender influencer.”
To her credit, Ikeda didn’t exactly stack the deck for Mulvaney and Bud Light. She started by saying Bud Light’s parent company Anheuser-Busch InBev was “promising to ramp up marketing efforts this summer after the company saw a drop in sales amid its contentious March Madness partnership with that transgender influencer.”
She continued, noting the “brief but polarizing partnership” between the beer-maker and Mulvaney as well as the now-public comments from Anheuser-Busch InBev CEO Michael Doukeris (click “expand”):
IKEDA: We’re now hearing from the social media star Dylan Mulvaney on the brewing controversy. The company behind some of the world’s most iconic beer brands —
ZAC BROWN BAND [in ad]: Cold beer on a Friday night —
IKEDA: — now addressing head-on the controversy surrounding one of its most popular products, Bud Light.
ANHEUSER-BUSCH INBEV CEO MICHAEL DOUKERIS: While beer will always be at the table when important topics are debated, the beer itself should not be the focus of the debate.
IKEDA: That debate stemming from a brief but polarizing partnership during March Madness with social media star Dylan Mulvaney, who is transgender.
MULVANEY: I celebrated my day 365 of womanhood and Bud Light sent me possibly the best gift ever: a can with my face on it.
She explained that “[t]he commemorative can, which was never sold in stores, dr[ew] fire from some customers in conservative groups who protested and called for boycotts” and were successful as “U.S. retail sales of Bud Light fell roughly 21 percent amid the controversy compared to the previous year while sales for rival brands, Coors Light and Miller Lite, rose by about the same amount.”
That said, Ikeda pumped the brakes for the multi-billion dollar corporation by pointing to a claim from the company that “the drop accounted for just about one percent of the company’s global volume” and sound from Doukeris downplaying the company’s endorsement of Mulvaney by saying it was only “one can, one influencer, one post, and not a campaign.”
Having had mentioned the pro-boycott and Anheuser-Busch InBev arguments, she ended by fretting from the left: “AB InBev’s relationship with the star falling flat with her followers, who argue they didn’t do enough to support Mulvaney in the fallout. Mulvaney addressing the backlash without actually naming Bud Light.”
However, Ikeda did end with bad news for the beer company by saying it planned to spend more money to bail out “wholesalers and frontline teams” for “fac[ing] the brunt of the backlash.”
As the Daily Wire’s Michael Knowles and others have explained, conservatives successfully had their morals make an imprint on business (as opposed to the church of wokeism).
Knowles’s colleague Matt Walsh — who perhaps did more to lead the charge than anyone — tweeted Thursday that he’s unsure “if most people fully appreciate the significance of this Bud Light stuff” as “[w]e made an iconic American brand toxic, virtually overnight, because it endorsed gender ideology.”
“This is a pivotal moment. A map to follow going forward,” he added.
But for leftists who only get their news from one of the major networks, they might not have heard about it.
To see the relevant NBC transcript from May 5, click “expand.”
NBC’s Today
May 5, 2023
8:00 a.m. Eastern [TEASE][ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: Brewing Controversy]
SAVANNAH GUTHRIE: Then, brewing controversy. This morning, the makers of Bud Light speaking out following that backlash after partnering with a transgender influencer. Straight ahead, what the company is now saying about it and the impact to their bottom line.
(....)
8:06 a.m. Eastern
[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: News at 8; Beer Giant Confronts Bud Light Controversy]
CRAIG MELVIN: The head of Anheuser-Busch is vowing to move past the controversy that essentially started with a beer can. The company faced a backlash over a commemorative Bud Light can that featured a transgender influencer. NBC’s Emilie Ikeda is here with the very latest on this story. Emilie, good morning to you.
EMILIE IKEDA: Craig, good morning to you. The maker of Bud Light promising to ramp up marketing efforts this summer after the company saw a drop in sales amid its contentious March Madness partnership with that transgender influencer. We’re now hearing from the social media star Dylan Mulvaney on the brewing controversy. The company behind some of the world’s most iconic beer brands —
ZAC BROWN BAND [in ad]: Cold beer on a Friday night —
IKEDA: — now addressing head-on the controversy surrounding one of its most popular products, Bud Light.
ANHEUSER-BUSCH INBEV CEO MICHAEL DOUKERIS: While beer will always be at the table when important topics are debated, the beer itself should not be the focus of the debate.
IKEDA: That debate stemming from a brief but polarizing partnership during March Madness with social media star Dylan Mulvaney, who is transgender.
DYLAN MULVANEY: I celebrated my day 365 of womanhood and Bud Light sent me possibly the best gift ever: a can with my face on it.
IKEDA: The commemorative can, which was never sold in stores, drawing fire from some customers in conservative groups who protested and called for boycotts.
KID ROCK [in Instagram video]: [EXPLETIVE] Bud Light.
IKEDA: U.S. retail sales of Bud Light fell roughly 21 percent amid the controversy compared to the previous year while sales for rival brands, Coors Light and Miller Lite, rose by about the same amount. In an earnings call Thursday, Anheuser-Busch said it’s too soon to know the full impact but pointed out to investors the drop accounted for just about one percent of the company’s global volume, which includes more than 500 brands.
DOUKERIS: We need to continue to qualify the facts that this was one can, one influencer, one post, and not a campaign.
IKEDA: AB InBev’s relationship with the star falling flat with her followers, who argue they didn’t do enough to support Mulvaney in the fallout. Mulvaney addressing the backlash without actually naming Bud Light.
MULVANEY: What I’m struggling to understand is the need to dehumanize and to be cruel. [SCREEN WIPE] There’s clearly no way of winning over everyone, but if you’re still around, I am too, and I love ya.
IKEDA: And we reached out to Dylan Mulvaney who declined an interview. Meantime, Anheuser-Busch says it stands by the programs and partnerships it’s invested in over the years. It’s also promising to triple its marketing spending this summer and provide financial support to wholesalers and frontline teams. That’s who the company says faced the brunt of the backlash.
MELVIN: Okay. Emilie Ikeda. Have a good weekend.
HODA KOTB: Thanks, Em.
IKEDA: Thanks, guys. You too.
